Dave Leaderhouse
Special to the Herald
When the Montreal Victoire eliminated the two-time defending Walter Cup champion Minnesota Frost on Tuesday it not only set up an all-Canadian Professional Women’s Hockey League final, but it also set the stage for two Prince Albert players to battle it out for bragging rights.
The Victoire, which has Kaitlin Willoughby in the line-up, will now face the Ottawa Charge, with Brooke Hobson patrolling the blueline, in a best-of-five championship series that begins on Thursday in Montreal.
“I just think it is so special that two girls from Prince Albert will be playing for the Walter Cup,” said Willoughby from her home in Montreal on Wednesday. “Regardless of who wins, the Walter Cup will be coming to Prince Albert. Selfishly, I hope it is me.”
“I’m really happy going head-to-head with her,” added Hobson on Wednesday prior to departing the nation’s capital for the two-hour trip to Montreal. “Having two girls from Prince Albert makes you want to have it even more.”
Despite an age difference of not quite five years, Willoughby and Hobson have followed amazingly similar paths to get to this point.
Willoughby starred for the Prince Albert Bears Midget AAA team for five years amassing 97 points in 96 games before spending another five seasons with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies where she put up 111 points in 132 games.
Hobson was in a Bears’ uniform for 128 games over five seasons and collected 86 points before moving on to Northeastern University for five seasons where she registered 100 points in 170 games.
Both were feted for their individual performances during their minor and collegiate careers as Willoughby was named a Canada West all-star on two occassions while with the Huskies and Hobson was touted as the Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League’s top defenceman twice in addition to being selected to the Hockey East second all-star squad three times.
Because of their age difference the two only shared the ice for a handful of games while with the Bears, but they have kept close tabs on each other as they progressed through their amateur and professional careers.
“Kaitlin has worked so hard,” says Hobson. “She grinded through a couple of leagues to get to where she is. I’m very proud of her.”
“We keep in touch throughout the year,” added Willoughby. “It was nice when we had the Take Over game in Winnipeg and our friends and families were there in the stands. I’m always cheering for Brooke.”
When her schooling was done, Willoughby was drafted 37th overall by the Calgary Inferno and in her rookie Canadian Women’s Hockey League season she tallied six points in 27 games and helped the Inferno win the Clarkson Cup. The CWHL collapsed following that season so Willoughby worked as a nurse in Calgary while playing hockey at a semi-pro level to stay involved in the sport.
Hobson, meanwhile, headed overseas for a year after graduating from Northeastern with a degree in psychology and for one season she played with Modo Hockey Club in the Swedish Women’s Hockey League where she posted 20 points in 30 games.
Then came the announcement of the PWHL being formed in 2023 and while Hobson heard her named being called with the 45th pick by the New York Siren, Willoughby was not selected, but was invited to attend the Toronto Sceptres training camp where she secured a spot on the opening-day roster.
Hobson spent two seasons with the Siren registering nine points in 53 games and after the 2024-25 season she briefly thought about retiring before Ottawa called and offered her a spot on the team for this season.
“I really do love it here in Ottawa,” says Hobson, who had four points in 23 games before a shoulder injury suffered at practice sidelined her for the final stretch of the regular season. “The girls are amazing and I’ve learned so much from the coaching staff. There is not much more I could have asked for.”
Willoughby is also with her second team in the PWHL as she had just one assist in 43 games with Toronto before being dealt to Montreal in March of 2025. The move has worked out extremely well for her as she picked up one assist in seven games last year with the Victoire and this season she recorded three goals and three helpers in 29 games.
Now comes the championship series and Montreal, which had to delay its deciding game with Minnesota for a day due to an illness ravaging the Victoire line-up, is considered an early favourite as they finished in first place in the regular season – 18 points better than Ottawa.
“Ottawa is a hardworking team and they have a hot goaltender (Gwyneth Phillips),” says Willoughby. “We are going to have to generate offence against a team that is tight defensively.”
“It is going to be a good series – we are not taking them lightly,” added Willoughby.
Hobson, who says the injured shoulder is fully healed, acknowledges being in the playoffs for the first time (New York failed to qualify during her two years with the Siren) has been exciting, but she expects playing in the final to be even better.
Something else that makes this Prince Albert connection even sweeter is that both Willoughby’s and Hobson’s fathers were coaching partners for the better part of a decade with the Bears. Jeff Willoughby and Gord Hobson obviously got involved because of their daughters, but they remained with the club long after the girls had moved on.
There will be a lot of interest in this final series, but Kaitlin Willoughby sums up the rivalry with Brooke when she says, “We are friends off the ice, but not on the ice.”
The first two games of the final series will be Thursday and Saturday in Montreal with the next two contests moving to Ottawa on Monday and, if necessary, Wednesday. A fifth and deciding game, if needed will be next Friday in Montreal.
The Victoire will be making their first appearance in the championship final while Ottawa is vying for the title for a second straight season. The Charge had their run at a title come to an end last year when Minnesota claimed its second straight championship in four games.
